Historian, Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist

The elected London Assembly has passed a motion of no confidence in Sir Ian Blair. If he had any honour (which being New Labour he doesn’t) he would go now. I watched much of his appearance before the Assembly. The result was no foregone conclusion, but his arrogance and rudeness swayed the Assembly against him. He effectively taunted them that they had no power to remove him. I do hope a transcript of this amazing meeting will be available.

6 thoughts on “Ian Blair Must Go”

One has to wonder about these people, what in fact goes on inside their heads? Apparently, not all that much! At a time like this surely Blair's undermined ligitimacy becomes a relevant security issue? How effective a leader for London's police can he be when he's lost credibility and seems lost under presure? He seems a weak leader and doesn't exactly instil confidence in his men, and he's lost their confidence in return. One almost wishes one could turn the clock back a few decades to a time when the concept of "honour" was still regarded as something worth having, and honourable men resigned when their positions became untenable. Now, they just apologize and suggest we all move on!

On my way home, I heard a story about faulty toys being produced at factories in China. The manager of one such factory, which had produced toys which might conceivably at some point harm some unknown child in some far-off country, committed suicide.

I believe there's a lesson there, which I wish the current government and its minions would emulate post-haste.

Problem is, these people literally have no shame. It is an alien concept to them. What motivates them is cold, blind, ambition; and an almost psychotic desire for Power. They are intoxicated by it. It turns them on more than sex. And it's not as if they actually want to do anything with it, all they are concerned about is having it for it's own sake.

I sympathise with writeon's comment. The old concept of Leadership was that the man at the top got the honours on behalf of his men when things went right, and when things went wrong he protected his men by first handing out the punishments and then resigning.

Blair has obviously taken the rewards of the office by accepting a knighthood; now is the time for him to show the other side of Leadership.

But all that honour and stuff seems to have passed from public life with the generation that fought WWII and Korea. All we have now are self-seeking bludgers.

The Met have behaved shamefully right from the start. As soon as they knew they had ballsed it up, they started fibbing and they have maintained this approach throughout proceedings. They lied about what Mr Menezes's clothing and behaviour right from the outset. If I recall correctly, they tried to suppress CCTV footage contradicting their claims.

Their defence case throughout the recent health and safety proceedings was disgraceful.

As a native Londoner who remembers Blair Peach, I'm not completely astonished.

So either Ian Blair knew this, in which case he lacks the integrity required to do the job or he didn't know it, in which case he lacks the competence to do the job. Paraphrasing what was said about Eden over Suez, if he knew, he's too wicked, if he didn't, he's too stupid. Blimey, that could apply to another Blair.

Yet one more incident convincing me that the upper echelons of society are strangers to the truth.